


Panacea

by avani



Category: Original Work
Genre: Arranged Marriage, Asian Character(s), F/F, Pining, unspecified chronic illness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-25
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-17 09:15:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28971945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/avani/pseuds/avani
Summary: They had not expected the woman King to survive; even less had they expected her foreign bride.
Relationships: Sickly Monarch/Their New Arranged Spouse
Comments: 9
Kudos: 29
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 6





	Panacea

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mintybears](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mintybears/gifts).



They had not expected the Princess to survive; not when she had three strapping brothers, hale and hotheaded and heartless, to ensure the succession, and not when she had spent most of her life confined to her rooms by bouts of fatigue. But the Plague-goddess made her own measure and kept her own accounts, so that the royal bloodline had only one remaining member to its name. The ministers were aghast.

There was nothing for it, of course. The once-Princess was duly crowned King, for even a weak, womanly King was better than none at all; and if she should be already accustomed to silent sullen acquiescence, so much the better. The only stumbling block was the arrival--utterly forgotten by the court at large, in the midst of so much upheaval--of the Imperial Princess from across the seas who had been sent, some months previous, to seal an alliance with her own body and blood. Unthinkable to offend the Emperor by sending her back once again; they would simply have to hope the chit held her tongue, and hadn't her own methods of sending messages back home.

No one felt the magnitude of the disaster more than the new King, not least because the Imperial Princess's shining black hair and sun-kissed cheeks had not missed her attention. _If only,_ she mused at times, _we had met under other circumstances_ \--but then, she imagined the Princess shackled to one of her brutish brothers and shuddered. Perhaps there was worse fates yet. 

Only once, after the formal greeting between the two, had she dared intrude upon her new spouse's privacy. Debilitating headaches, she thought with customary wry humor, had at least the questionable benefit of making for convenient excuses; and certainly she was sure the Princess must loathe her. The King knew better to imagine herself the tall gallant figure of anyone's dreams, much less dreams that would have sustained the long journey over the waves. But to her surprise, the Princess welcomed her, and bade her sit upon one of the red-lacquered chairs clustered about her rooms. It was chilly, of course--then again, the King was always cold, and had been as long as she could remember. Blankets and braziers were useless; far better, she had discovered, to silently endure. 

The Princess offered tea; the King refused. It was really very fine, the Princess added; but the King's stomach had roiled from morning onwards. Better to demur. How well-crafted the furniture was, said the King, with a well-concealed wince at how the stiff back of the chair felt against her body; it only complimented the palace's natural beauty, murmured the Princess. The weather was lovely, the King observed; indeed, agreed the Princess.

On this uncomfortable conversational note, they lapsed into mutual silence, until the King said, "If you want, I'll have them send you home."

The Princess looked up from a study of her hands, kept clasped in her lap. "Your ministers will grumble," she said.

"They will," said the King, thinking there was no point in dishonesty, "but I'll have them do it regardless." She hesitated. "If you wish."

For a long instance, the Princess said nothing. "On the subject of wishes, I would have a garden of my own. To plant my own clippings and see them take root."

This did not seem the demand of one prepared to take passage upon the next ship available, but all too well the King knew the dangers of hope. She only nodded her head, and told herself she did not flush violently when the Princess replied, "It is very good of you."

"Thank you," she squeaked--a King, squeaking! Her father and brothers would have expired from disgust on the spot--and turned away, and fled. 

*

The garden, when complete, was indeed magnificent. Some of the ministers complained of foreign smells and foreign weeds, but personally the King found it fascinating. That, the Princess said, was mugwort; and this ginseng; and _that_ of course the cinnamon everyone knew. In time the King grew accustomed to spending much of her limited leisure time outside, reclining on one of the supremely comfortable cushions that had somehow appeared in the Princess's proximity. In the garden, the habitual chill limited itself to a breeze or gust of wind, rather than the relentless iciness of the palace interiors, and this more than anything made all the difference. 

"There are herbs," the Princess said, "that might help. With symptoms such as yours."

"Are there?" said the King, who rather felt she had been dosed with unpleasant tinctures daily since birth. 

"There are. And I--Well, you must know I was not the most obedient of daughters to my poor father. More often than he would like, I ran away to join the royal physicians and learn what I could from them. I flatter myself I was not an unsatisfactory student, and so, if you should like, I might attempt--"

The King had not the heart to refuse. "I should be honored to receive any cure you might prepare," she said, and was earnestly glad her pulse need not be checked at once. 

*

There were cures aplenty offered, and all expertly made. None did entirely restore the King to miraculous health, as might be the case in a children's tale--but against all expectations, they helped. Or perhaps, said the King's ministers with a sniff, it could all be attributed to the beneficial effects of new love.

How ridiculous, thought the King, and found it all so ridiculous that she felt the need to repeat this to the Princess herself. But instead of a response of the laughter she dreaded, the Princess only regarded her for a long moment.

"There are worse maladies one might suffer from," she said tonelessly, and the King blinked in surprise. "From personal experience, I tell you this," the Princess continued.

"Ah," said the King, and then: "Ah." She paused. "I will never be broad-shouldered and gallant," good sense had her warn, "and my only strength will ever be kindness. But so little I can promise you, for all the days I have yet."

"I accept," the Princess said promptly, and put forward her hand; and the King closed her cool fingers about it, and smiled from the warmth. 


End file.
